I just sold in Maryland and it is 10 days for condo resale documents/HOA rules. I had to buy the book from the HOA which was $75.00. The buyer had 10 days to back out of the deal after the date of receiving the book. I am in the market for a townhouse now, so I was told it is 5 days for the HOA documents and I can reject the offer if I do not agree with the HOA. Also you can use that time to back out of the contract. But you should always read quickly the documents. A very large HOA in our area does not allow pickup trucks....so how would you like to go there, buy a home and know you have to sell your truck.

My agent just sent me an e-mail in response to me asking her to specify that my listing remain active in the mls because most agents do not bother to show contingent listings. Her response is "We will put in as RRF, which means right of first refusal to other agents. They understand that means they can still show and sell it." I have replied that I am reading online that 99 percent of agents do not bother to show RRF listings so can't we leave it active? Oh, I have just heard back from her and she is saying "That is not true as far as I know. All good agents show homes that match their buyers needs. They know most people can not take a contingency off in 48 hours. I've sold many RRF houses. But no we can not leave it active." Is this true??? I don't know what to think right now. I don't know if my agent is being truthful--it goes against what you all are telling me. Advice?

"I would definetly do a kick-out clause as terriks mentioned along with specific details as to how that should be handled as in what proof the buyers have to provide to show they can remove the contingency." The usual kick out does not require an proof from the buyer, but gives them X days to waive the contingency in writing or the contract is null and void. The seller must supply proof of a bona fide offer to purchase. I have supplied it as a written contract that is contingent on the first contract being waived according to the kick out clause. A copy of the backup offer is delivered to the first buyer to start the clock running.

We just closed on 2 homes Tuesday. I'll summarize what happened with us. After looking for 7 months we found new construction in August. We bought a house that was already spec'd out, permits pulled, house had not gone up yet. February comes, house supposedly has 1 month to go. Get offers, couldn't work one, 2nd we were working when a 3rd came in. Accepted #3 due to type of loan, they pulled out during attorney review. Buyer 2 came back, wanted a 3 month close we said no. We wanted a 30 day close but met in the middle with 60. Attorney review, then inspection. They had 5 days to give us their fix list and didn't. Day 6 our agent calls to get the list. We fixed one safety related item (flue on new furnace) & was going to try to work on 3 things by getting estimates. If they were in a certain dollar amount we'd attempt to fix or credit. Buyer got married went on honeymoon, no contact for 2 weeks. After a misunderstanding by my agent (he thought we were fixing 3 things) we were then committed to doing something. At this point, we were called to closing on the new house and if we did not close would be charged almost $200 per day. A week before closing (which is now week 7) the buyers started making phone calls to contractors & township about permits. By a few days before closing at a few hours after business close at the start of a national holiday we get a call that they'd changed their mind about what was verbally agreed on. At this point we were being charged per day, had utilities scheduled to go off, daughter was signed out of school and we had most of our life packed. Tuesday morning the buyer walked through we were still being moved out. When hubby left for closing (I was still with movers) we still didn't know if we'd have issues or not. Since the title company already wrote up what they'd agreed to, it could not be changed without changing the close date. Thankfully they said ok. It's a domino effect. If either your buyer has issues selling their house or you have issues with the house you are buying one may not close when it is supposed to. Thankfully our buyer did not have a house to sell, but that could have worked against us as well. The amount of earnest money we had ($1,000) wouldn't have helped us much at that (closing day) point because we were on day 4 of not closing on our new house. It was also so small they could easily walk away while we'd lose our $15,000 deposit on the new place. Our new house would have gone on the market, and from what I understand, we'd get charged and price decreases so we had a lot to lose. As for being a buyer looking at a house with a contingency, I liked one house that was under contract (of course) but it didn't fall through. Since the type of house I wanted was very specific, I would have looked at one if I liked what I saw, if there was nothing special about the house, no. Why fall in love with a house you probably can't have? The other thing about earnest money, if you have anything more then a 30 day close and something happens, it's possible your selling season is over, which is what we would have probably been looking at had we not closed. Last year our market was from February until a few weeks after Memorial weekend. The young local couple who looked at our home yesterday (they are our 3rd 'lookers' if you count the 'crazy' no-shoes lady) are interested but didn't want to make a formal written offer until they knew we would consider a contingency that their town home sells first. They are listing it this weekend and I don't expect that it would take more than a month for them to get it sold. I told my agent that yes, we'd consider it as long as the offer was a good one. I don't see why not? It was a brief conversation with our agent, so I don't yet know all the ins and outs of such a contingency. But he did say that we could put a 30 day limit on it and make sure that they had mortgage pre-approval. He also said he'd take a look at their town home to evaluate it's sell-ability (but he didn't anticipate a problem with that since so many people are in need of housing here). If it was me, I would ask they list their house 1st and come back in a week or 2 after seeing how much action they get once listed. In most areas, condos and town homes are not selling. There was a post on citydata by one person who was listed about a year. If you go to the real estate section there, you can find lots of posts from others not able to sell. Ask your agent how desirable town homes are in their area. Good luck & congrats on receiving an offer. Sorry for the book.